Since i got such a nice response from Talius i decided to post the first chapter today already !
For a lot of people it might seem slow. But that is how i will most likely be doing it. In other stories i often got annyoed at sudden jumps of power that made the MC leap into OP-ness too quickly. It takes time to build up a Dungeon, recruit and breed your little minions and whatever else i will find for him to do. This does not mean there won´t be any time jumps where it makes sense(if we are just waiting for things to grow, that would be boring).
With that i hope you enjoy :)
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I slowly woke up sometime later. My vision was completely black and I felt disoriented. I couldn't feel my body move at all and panicked for a moment, until something happened.
Welcome to the Dungeon System
The last steps to your initialization are being completed right now.
Meanwhile the tutorial for Dungeon Lords can be taken .
Would you like to begin ?
Y/N
My mind drew a blank at first and i could only keep on staring at the blue window.
This just can't be happening ….. a fucking Tutorial ? Really ?
To make transition easier for summoned beings
the King of Gods devised this in accordance to what he saw in your World.
God ripped of our game companies! that's a copyright issue ! Though who could sue a god.
Anyway I decided it was a good idea to take that Tutorial and tried to move my hand to touch the Y but realized that right now nothing seemed to work. So instead i tried to think yes and positive thoughts. My work was rewarded promptly.
You have chose to follow the Tutorial
You will receive a reward at the end
My vision suddenly warped into a whirling of thousands of colors until it settled down again. What had reformed before me was a endlessly stretching grassy plain.
Holy shit what's going on here? Where am i now?
For the purpose of the Tutorial you have been transferred to a secondary space
dimension. Nothing you do here will have effects on the primary space
and actions will have no costs as they are not real.
Well that is pretty convenient and to be kinda expected of a tutorial. So how do i start anyway?
As dungeon you have the dungeon system to support you
You can access its menus by thinking one of the following commands
Status
Build
Skills
Evolution
Map
Servants
In the course of your live you may unlock additional menus other than these standard ones.
Just as you did the confirmation by thinking the matching word or intention to enter the menu it will appear.
Well that much seems easy enough, so let's start with ‘Status’
Name: None
Rank: F
Mana: -
Mana recovery: -
Level: -
Until you are in the primary space you have neither Mana
nor an actual physical dungeon
That made sense in a way, as much as anything right now could make sense. Then i guess i should just take a look at the menus other than build first. ‘Skills’
Spawn insects -
Spawn plants -
Growth lvl 1
Universal language max
Spawn Ore vein lvl 1
Well those are kinda plain, why can´t i spawn something more interesting ?
Dungeons can only create beings without soul which include
low level insects, plants and inanimate objects such as ore.
More intelligent beings have to be recruited and bred.
So you say but what am i actually to do If i can´t spawn anything useful ?
A dungeon serves as a Monster species home in
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
a symbiotic relation. The dungeon let's the monsters
prosper while they protect the core, your body.
Gah so in other words i am a babysitter? Just great. Well on another view a King needs his subjects to live. So how am i supposed to take care of whatever if i cannot move?
By thinking how you want to move you can move your vision.
As that was mentioned I focused hard and managed to slowly move as the screen instructed, a bit forward and turning around i saw a mound of crystal on the grass. It looked like it would be able to reach my hip if i still had my body but it was hard to estimate like this. The nearly transparent crystal structure was glowing with slowly shifting lights of varying color.
Kinda small ? Shouldn´t this be something that feels more epic? like a room full of giant crystals and stuff?
The size of your crystal body increases with rank
and the size of your territory claimed.
Bigger territory will also mean a stronger influx of environmental mana
that is absorbed from the space around you.
So the bigger i am the stronger i am ?
…
Simply said yes.
Well that is simple enough. Though by now i was getting a feeling as if the darn window had a personality of itself ? Nah must be my imagination. As long as it works properly i don't care where my Mana comes from.
Wait, Mana ? Does that mean i can cast spells later on too and stuff?
After your level increases can choose your first Avatar.
Only through your Avatar you can cast spells as decreed
by the God King´s rules.
Thus you are limited to the capabilites of your body in order to keep the balance of strength in the world.
Oh sweet so i will get some body at least later down the line !
Having clarified that i looked around for a moment. But since there really was only grass here as far as the eye could reach I went on. For now it seemed to be the most interesting to take a closer look at the skills.
Spawn Insect
This magic spawns for every 3 mana points invested one non sentient insect that can either be randomly chosen or selected specifically.
Currently available insects
Meatsnails 2M
Flourbug 2 M
Cavespider 3 M
Any low level insect that enters your territory will be listed here afterwards
Spawn Plant
This magic spawns non sentient plants randomly according to the invested mana. Some plants may need more mana than others.
Currently available plants
Moss 10 M/m^2
Luminous mushroom 2 M
Any low level plant that is brought into your dungeon will be listed here afterwards
Growth lvl 1
Accelerates Growth of infant and young beings. Simpler beings will go through growth faster than more complex ones. Will not affect fully grown beings or incorporeal ones. Beings affected by this will have a reduced lifespan. You can select which beings are affected and which are not. Activating Growth in a room will cost a certain amount of mana continuously supplied according to the rooms size.
Universal Language MAX
You are able to understand every being that has sentience.
Spawn Ore Vein lvl 1
Morphs a certain amount of stone into a Ore vein, the more Mana used the purer and/or larger the ore can be.
Currently available ores
Tin
Copper
Higher levels of this skill enables higher value ore veins to be spawned and the mana costs for the ores below the current level are halved.
Hmm well those sound pretty useful, though the growth one does have a mean downside to it. Nothing comes without a cost.
I pondered as i looked over the skill texts, after a while i tried out spawning plants and insects. I could just select a spawn point for the insects and they would appear directly molded out of the mana. For the plants i could choose an area and they would begin to sprout from there. Along with growth you could actually watch them grow slowly right in front of you.
Spawned creatures can gain a soul after they accumulated mana
either through killing other beings or existing for a certain amount of time.
After that they can evolve, by reaching their max level or by meeting certain other conditions, like all other beings.
Hmmh that meant i could rear up some insects from scratch. Would most likely take some time but may be worth it.
Next i wanted to take a look into evolution and servants but both were simply empty.
Evolutions for yourself and bonuses can be bought after raising your level and/or acquiring
evolution points. Servants displays beings that swore allegiance to you.
After a servant has unlocked a certain class you can award others with the same.
This requires Mana according to how close or far they are from the requirements in skills.
Which means if i have someone that already is rather good in fighting it will cost less to turn him into a warrior then someone who is just a weak guy that never fought?
Correct
Some classes may be available to more species than others.
Then what use is it anyway to give them a class?
Owning a class increases the aptitude with the responding skills
and offers some bonuses.
Last I tried my hand a building, which was pretty simple all over. I could construct rooms and make a cave into the ground or tunnels just as i imagined them. Though it seems i had a boundary which was my current dungeon area. Corresponding to what i build my map was altered right away and it was actually a 3D Map which made, building more than one Floor, quite simple. Besides that there were also predefined structures and elements it seems.
Currently available structures:
tiny well 3 M/h
small well 9 M/h
More complex structures will be unlocked by experimenting,
races joining your dungeons or are granted by other beings.
Materials other than stone have to be harvested by your servants before beings used for building.
Another simple to use thing. That Godking really did a good job on this. Ah just a moment ! How am i supposed to make sure my guys don´t suffocate later on if i dig my dungeon deeper?
Part of the subconscious actions a dungeon takes is to purify a part of the air.
This does not apply in case of sudden drastic oxygen consumption.
Neither are poisons or particles such as smoke cleared out.
Hmmh well that seems like a good deal. After all i might want to use poison myself later on. Then it would be troublesome if i ruined it myself.
For a while i still played around with some of the building and skills to get a better feeling for it. After some trial and error I found out that i could move my view outside my area for about a 100m which could be a bit useful to scout. Apparently i needed to use my Avatar to move outside further than that.
The Tutorial is now completed
The reward for this are :
Free spawn insects and plants, each up to a of worth 1000 Mana
1 Evolution point
Shadow Grass added to your plants list
Proceeding with transfer of the soul to the dungeon crystal
With that my mind went hazy and i lost consciousness again as soon as i had read the text.